WEEK 1: IDEA FORMULATION, RESEARCH AND BLOCKOUT
DAY 1: GROUP PROJECT
My second elective started with a quick group project to introduce the principles of our final project.
We started by compiling lists of random items, devices and technology, invented or highly used in the twenty-first century. And then it was time to compile a similar list of time periods with distinctive styles. Our lecturer Sam put it all in random pears generator and it made a list of generated phrases.
My group chose to do Ancient Greek FURBY. My task was to analyse the FURBY toy’s working mechanisms and functions. I started it by watching its deconstruction videos to find out what kind of mechanisms get it going.
While drawing sketches for redesign I misunderstood the task. I myself focused on redesigning FURBY’S look to be in a certain time period, didn’t pay enough attention to keep the function of it as a robotic pet. We redesigned it into a war machine – a grenade type of weapon with a FURBY appearance.
DAY 2: IDEA GENERATION AND RESEARCH
Time period: Aztec
Daily life: Aztec were deeply religious; their daily routine was filled with prayers and rituals. Women in the family usually took up sewing, food making, domestic chores, pottery. Where men in times of peace were tending crops and hunting for food, also doing their part in religious summits.
What materials did they have and how did they produce objects? For tools: obsidian, copper, andesite, flint, wood, obsidian. Wood, clay, jade, limestone, gold, silver, and copper
- Eagle – The eagle was representative of the sun and warriors.
- Serpents – Serpents represented water or fire.
- Conch shell – The Conch shell was an important symbol of fertility.
- Frogs and sea creatures – Represented Tlaloc Symbols
They produced objects by creating and moulding them by hand. They have not had domesticated animals to use in farming, everything was achieved by handwork.
>Florentine Codex written by Friar Bernardino de Sahagún.
Copper war rarely used for weapon production, only used for a few kinds of tools such as needles, tweezers, axes, punches, fishhooks, and wire. A lot of it was used for personal decoration or prestige items like bells, beads, pendants, and pins. Copper was also used for ceremonial purposes such as discs, animal effigies, figurines, and tubes. They still very much used obsidian for everyday tools and weapons.
Imposing architecture, highly decorated pottery, geometric stamps for fabric and body art, and breathtaking metalwork which were all used to stand for people, animals, plants, gods and features of religious ceremony, especially those rites and deities connected to fertility and agriculture.
Were there factories or blacksmiths?
Aztecs were quite proficient in their goldsmithing skills. They mostly used metals for decorative purposes; for example, religious celebrations, sacrifices or rates, outfits, and jewellery.
What is the significance of this time? Why was it important or noteworthy?
Aztecs had intricate political, social, and religious systems. The civilization built upon agriculture and war. Even with only primitive tools, people managed to build impressive pyramids and buildings for higherups with their impressive engineering skills. They developed Calander and efficient water preservation and collection ways.
What methods of production did they have in your chosen period and location?
Usually, people made things in baches for selling. For example, in goldsmithing, each part of the production process was done by hand by person, usually apprentice. Mastercraftsman would take up the last, the most demanding decorative part.
What materials did they work with?
For tools: They used obsidian, bone, stone, copper, andesite, flint, and wood.
For building: wood, straws, stone – limestone, pebbles,
For jewellery and decorations and household items: Wood, clay, jade, gold, silver, copper
What are the iconic features of this period? What repeating designs or features can you identify?
Very intricate art carved meticulously into stone for decorations and religious reasons. Symbols of Sun, Eagle, Feathered Serpent, Quetzalcoatl. Terraced pyramids, built to house temples and accommodate religious ceremonies.
Object/technology: LIGHTER
How is it made?
Metal casing, usually brass, with metal insert, which has inside wick with cotton balls around it, flint, and flint wheel for ignition, felt pad for protection from lighter liquid leakage.
How does it work?
By turning the flint wheel against flint, a spark ignites the lighter liquid-soaked wick, and it sparks the flame. To extinguish the flame the case is being closed off.
Necessity is the mother of invention. What need does your chosen piece of technology serve?
Portable fire source, compact and easy to carry.
What evolutionary steps lead to this object? What did people use before it existed to fill this need?
Parking fire using flint itself and carrying of finding all needed components in the wild. The need for portable flame, the increase in tobacco and cigarettes popularity kicked started lighters manufacturing.
What makes this object interesting?
The size, design opportunities, the creation of the flame, concept of taming something wild as fire in a small container.
What are the 3 most essential components of this device? What is their function?
Lighter fluid – to feed the flame.
Flint pieces – to spark the flame.
Wick – to keep flame in place and reachable.
How is the device powered?
By Lighter fluid – easily flammable liquid. It can be either petroleum distillate or synthetic isoparaffinic hydrocarbon (naphtha)
After you have chosen both:
How might history have changed had they had your device? Would it be minor or significant?
In the Aztec religion, the huge importance is place on Sun and fire, forms of warmth, life, fertility, growth. I would imagine that light would take up religious instrument role, godly item, dedicated for prayers and rituals
What is the object made of? List as many materials as you can think of. Which of these would not be available? Can you think of any substitutes?
Of precious metals as its casing – gold, silver, encrusted with precious stones as jade. Inside wick would be stranded from wool strands, with woven-in copper strings. The cotton on wool balls would be soaked in liquid tar or alcohol.
What will be the most complex challenge of adapting this object to the new period?
Making it portable or usable as it is now.
Who would have owned this object? Who could afford it? Where and how would it be used?
It would be used by priests in temples for fire ceremonies or sacrifices to have a closer connection to their god. It would be a relic in temples of family relic passed down throughout generations.
How old would your object be? Is it brand new? Is it worn and damaged? Does it live in a museum?
Now it would be old but nicely preserved as a holy relic of that time. It would be taken care of, used only on holy occasions.
How can the device be powered in the new period?
By the usage of flammable liquid and spark.
Connections
FIRE
One of the important duties of an Aztec priest centred on the maintenance of the sacred fire, making sure that it would burn perpetually. A new fire was ritually kindled during the dedication of new buildings. The two festivals of Xiuhtecuhtli coincide with the two extremes in the climatological cycle, the heat of August and the cold of January. Once every 52 years, at the end of a complete cycle in the calendar of the Aztecs, the fire was ceremonially transferred first from temple to temple and then from temples to homes.
The god of fire appears in various representations and guises, one of which depicts him as a toothless old man with a stooped back, carrying an enormous brazier on his head. His insignia was the Xiuhcóatl, or serpent of fire, characterized by a nose of horn, decorated with seven stars.
The oil industry in modern-day Mexico did not just appear in Mexico; it dates to the Aztec civilization. The Aztecs first discovered oil in the form of Chapopote or tar in the state of Veracruz. The Aztecs used the tar as a form of incense to worship their deities, but it was not until the Spanish arrived in Mexico that it was used as a resource to create wealth.
For inspiration and historical accuracy, I compiled a mood board of Aztec sculptures or their deities, gods, serpents. I looked into patterns, ornaments and jewellery found. At the same time – I did a deeper dive into the construction and style of nowadays lighters, specifically Zippos.
We were introduced to Maya basics. It was frustrating at best. The controls don’t make sense and I found it difficult to grow accustomed to them. We were introduced to the basic starter object and their manipulation tools. And our introductory task was to model Lego man in Maya.
Won’t lie, I had such difficulty creating it. The first problem was with the camera and object snapping without me wanting to do it. I solved it by downloading not the newest, 2022 version, but 2020. Then the polygons I was working on started messing p when the smoothing filter is put on. At one point I got so frustrated that I just remodelled the whole project from scratch using the trials and errors knowledge I compiled from the first one.
WEEK 2: BLOCKOUT, SCULPTING AND CREATIVE WRITING
DAY 1: IDEA PRESENTATION AND BLOCKOUT
The design of the lighter I decided to do as a ceremonial figure, staff of the priest. The staff with the Fire serpents head on the top. I ran through few designs and with the input from Sam and my classmates I settled on the initial design.
Blockout
My object came out really geometric, so creating block out was not a hefty task. By using drawn front and side view panels I made it proportional and how I developed it while working on sketches.
Creative writing: About the object.
To see it in action always have been a spectacle. Panquetzaliztli ceremony. There, in front of the mass of people stood the elder priest. Imposing and powerful, he looked over the community, faces of people, filled with awe and hunger to be closer to heathens. All of them holding their breaths, waiting for the ceremony to begin.
In the priest’s hand, the staff was held. Incredible piece of craftsmanship. The holy residence for the spirit of the Fire Serpent. Decorated with precious stones and gold, it could be seen by everyone. The fire serpent’s Xiuhcoatl head decorated the top of the staff. Gleaming precious crystals gave it a sight to observe surrounding and gaping open mouth was threatening to swallow any non-believer. It overlooked the devoted from above as though judging their worth for the god it served.
Intriguing spirals adorned the Serpent’s body, lines swirling through the length of its body, fusing into the wooden portion of the staff, continuing its outer frame down. Gold lines traced them, racing with one another, like a deadly game of Tlachtli – jumping, chasing one another.
The holy place was breathtaking itself, but what people were clustering to see was more. The Call. Sacred rite, granted only for most devoted followers. Summoning of the Serpent. The ritual to witness the rebirth of the flame, the blessed presence of the god.
Finally, the elder silenced the crowds. His outstretched hands were the focus of everyone’s eyes, thirsty for closeness to the gods they served. He raised the holy staff. No one dared to take a breath. Even the wild listened intently.
Silence.
The impact of the staff hitting the ground echoed through the masses. Fire erupted for the Serpent’ mouth, hot, bubbling and powerful, eating everything in its path. The holy fire, the rebirth of the new time. Everyone fell on their knees. Their god turned its gaze on them once again.
DAY 2: SCULPTING PRACTICE
Using the SculptGL site we learned how to import and export objects to and from different programs. And while at it, learned how to sculpt and use tools to improve the model. For the exercise, we had to model hair for our previous lego model.
WEEK 3/4: FURTHER BLOCKOUT, DETAILING, TEXTURING, UV MAPPING
BLOCKOUT
Week 3 continued with the main model block out. I ran into few problems regarding the smoothing of the model shapes and geometry glitching itself when trying to add edge loops. While working on fixing the main geometry of the model, I remodelled the serpent head three times, each time experimenting with the most beneficial starter polygon primitives. Through trial and error, I made the model with the cleanest geometry and clear was to smooth it out.
TEXTURING, UV AND RENDERING
It was the first time learning how to create and apply textures and their maps. The tutorial starte with learning what UV map is and how to create them. By using some pre-made Maya models we made horse UVs to gain some practise and familiarity.
Then we used Sam’s provided pre-made Lego Man UV to try and create texture old fashioned way, using photoshop and painting the colour and texture on each single mesh side of UV. After it was finished we had some time o familiarise ourselves with Substance Painter, another software for painting realistic textures and exporting them to Maya.
Photoshop texturing
After applied textures, we were introduced to lighting in Maya. First, we got to know different types of light and different lighting sets, such as three-point lighting. We got to experiment some with it.
Next was realistic lighting, using HDRIs. We studied the ways to apply and control them, highlighting the differences and useful ways to add them into our works for a crisp look.
We applied the texture and lighting on Lego Man models, used as practice and easier geometry.
RETRO DEVICE: AZTEC LIGHTER SCULPTING, TEXTURING, ANIMATION
While working on the project model I encountered inverted shapes, UVs that are inverted and applying texture on the inside of the shape. I had to have a consultation with Sam about it and it seems that my whole mesh was inverted in Maya. While fixing the mesh I got a suggestion about using SculptGL to add more texture, roughness, imperfections onto the model. And I did just that.
I encountered another stop with creating UVs for the modified model. It had too many polygons and Maya glitched to not be able to use the UV cutting tool. At that time, I didn’t have knowledge of how to fix such bugs. I came to the conclusion of it being too complicated, besides the fact that later on, I got some helpful tips on how to reset Maya’s default settings.
With SculptGL I added engravings on the sides of the head, some scratches, indications of wear and tear, chipping. Some indents to symbolise the old, ancient type of artefact.
Because of the bug I encountered with Maya, I made a choice to use automatic UV unwrapping. It came out good enough to use for textures in Substance Painter. By using some different texture combinations I made sandstone looking head with gold embellishments and wooden staff part. I tried to make it look like it belonged in the Aztec period but also have age indents of being vastly used for ceremonial purposes. Substance Painter’s Tri-planar texture projector let me apply textures smoother, without taking too much information from janky UVs I had. I am proud of the way it turned out, the textures look smooth on the model, the dirt and indentations add more historical significance, tell a story.
For creating a set environment for the model I used one of the HDRIs for lighting and background, Added some rocks and plane for grass to have a structure to lean the staff on. I didn’t put much effort into the background because the main part of the composition is the Lighter.
Image renders
For the video render, I wanted to add some fire emanating from the mouth of the serpent. I delved into particle simulations while trying to make it look as realistic as possible.
While working on-camera movements and renders, I overestimated the time and the rendered video would come out being too fast. I had to re-render some of the parts separately to get a satisfactory result.
Overall, I am really proud of the result I managed to present. It came out better than I thought it would. Throughout the whole elective, I gained vast knowledge about bringing the project from start to finish and for it to come out as professional as it did. From idea generation to fundamentals in Maya, UVs, texturing, lighting and animation – everything was introduced clearly with clarifications if needed. Can’t lie the first couple of weeks were frustrating because of the unfamiliarity of the program, but later on it grew on me, I developed a drive to learn a bit more than it is asked, such as trying particles and Substance Painter. I wholeheartedly enjoyed the practice and introduction that I got through this project d I gained a more objective look into 3D animation and its production pipeline.